I hid it in my wardrobe because she’s here so often, and then had to ask to borrow it this week because I didn’t have a photo!

I’m so proud of it 

It’s sooo much better than my first fish, and it’s lovely to look and see how my painting has improved in such a short time.

Mum & Wonderhubby almost came to blows over whose house my first fish painting will live at, so I decided to paint one just for her.

She loves blue, so of course that had to be the main colour.

I used a page from an old phone book, pretty spotted scrapbooking paper, lacy binding, acrylic paints and charcoal pencil.

Then the green tail grew from the green spots on the body.

And she loves it

#1 ~ New Year Bird on etsy ~ $3

#2 ~ Bird in Boots ~ on etsy $3

#3 ~ Business Bird ~ on etsy $3

Since then, it’s kept popping into my head at odd moments and over the weekend I realised that it would make a really cute painting.

I started sketching and came up with a number of designs for different shaped canvases, and this one is going to be a present for Wren at Christmas.

She loves blue, she loves cats, and she’s into zentangle…

Love the texture of the fishy body and face.

Love the shading of the tailfins.

What I’ve learnt from this effort is to make sure I use the same technique for the whole of a creature.

The tail has great shading and a smooth texture, because I painted it first.

Then, when my yellow paint was kind of dry and I needed to smooth it on by finger for the body, I liked the texture but it didn’t match what I’d already painted.

Anyhoo, I’m looking at it as a study of techniques to refer back to.

Next time I want to paint with shading I’ll look at the tail, and if I want to give something real texture I’ll refer to the body.

And like my Mum always says, when you stop learning, you’re dead.